A'Lelia Bundles

Both my parents worked at the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, with my dad eventually being hired by another company called Summit Laboratories that made chemical hair straighteners.

Wearing your hair natural is a positive statement about who you are. It's not a protest to somebody else. It's affirming you.

Madam Walker's name gets thrown out as either the savior of black women's hair or she's the evil devil.

It's very hard to be a kid, especially in a predominantly white school or white town where other people want to police your body and hair.

I know of at least two black women who are billionaires: Sheila Johnson, who co-founded BET, and Oprah Winfrey. And I know of hundreds of black women whose net worth is over $1 million.

What grows from our head is something that we should love. The larger society can love it or not, but it's not their decision to make.